"In a salary-cap sport such as pro hockey, growing your own players is critical. Developing defensemen has become Cassidy’s calling card.Since Cassidy came to Providence as an assistant to Rob Murray in 2009, five defensemen have moved up to the NHL with his help: Johnny Boychuk, Adam McQuaid, Torey Krug, Matt Bartkowski and Kevan Miller.

As an assistant coach with Chicago from 2004-06, Cassidy had a hand in the development of Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, Dustin Bfuglien and James Wisniewski. “I do believe I’m good at this,” Cassidy says, without a hint of bravado."

What happened in Washington didn’t concern Chiarelli in the least.

“If you look at [Claude Julien] in Boston, he had been fired twice. I truly believe that those coaches who have gone through that successfully are better coaches as a result. They learn from what they did before, and I’d put Butch in that category. It’s one of the reasons why I hired him,” Chiarelli said."

Neither coaches are the same as when they started with the Bruins organization.

"In a salary-cap sport such as pro hockey, growing your own players is critical. Developing defensemen has become Cassidy’s calling card.Since Cassidy came to Providence as an assistant to Rob Murray in 2009, five defensemen have moved up to the NHL with his help: Johnny Boychuk, Adam McQuaid, Torey Krug, Matt Bartkowski and Kevan Miller.

As an assistant coach with Chicago from 2004-06, Cassidy had a hand in the development of Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, Dustin Bfuglien and James Wisniewski. “I do believe I’m good at this,” Cassidy says, without a hint of bravado."

What happened in Washington didn’t concern Chiarelli in the least.

“If you look at [Claude Julien] in Boston, he had been fired twice. I truly believe that those coaches who have gone through that successfully are better coaches as a result. They learn from what they did before, and I’d put Butch in that category. It’s one of the reasons why I hired him,” Chiarelli said."

Neither coaches are the same as when they started with the Bruins organization.

True that. I like that the focus in Providence seems to be on both winning in the AHL and in preparing players for Boston - not just the NHL, but the specifics on which the Bruins' success is founded. Every prospect who's come up has acquitted himself well. I'd have liked to see more from Fraser, Cunningham looked just okay in a brief stint, and I don't consider Sweethands a prospect, but Spooner, Florek, Miller, Trotman, Warsofsky, have all been better than OK. And Julien has used most of them more than he might have in the past - that one game with Warsofsky and Trotman paired in Ottawa, Warsofsky played 18+ and they both saw 3+ min on the PP.

I've never thought Julien was one of those hardline coaches who loves his vets - he's brought up a lot of young guys over his career - but he's definitely more creative, or maybe flexible, now. Always steady, but now steady and flexible, which is a great combination if you want stability.

Just to follow up on the Julien comment - in Montreal, he was the coach who brought in Ryder, Ribiero, Higgins, Plekanec, made Markov a regular, and Perezhogin. Not shabby for two and a half years. In Jersey, though - Zajac was a rookie under Julien, Parise a second year player, Andy Greene a rookie, Johnny Oduya a rookie, David Clarkson had a cup of coffee, and Paul Martin was a second year player. That's a lot of youth, especially on the blueline, in a one year stint. The record in Boston isn't that different with Lucic, Kessel, Boychuk, McQuaid, Marchand, Krug, Bartkowski and now Miller, plus the no-brainers of Hamilton and Seguin. Even Caron - he's given that kid more than enough rope to hang himself. He's hung himself and is using the slack to play cat's cradle.

The Providence Bruins came away from the 17th weekend of the season with two of a possible six points. They beat Worcester, but dropped two home games to St. John's, allowing the IceCaps to overtake them in the Eastern Conference standings. Here's my take on the good, the bad and the ugly.

Good

*** Back from a foot injury, Malcolm Subban was outstanding in the final minutes of Saturday's 3-2 win in Worcester. His goals-against average of 2.29 is now ninth in the league. He is 5-0-0 against the Sharks.

*** Nick Johnson scored four points in three games, including two goals in Worcester on Saturday night. His plus-14 leads the P-Bruins.

*** Jared Knight was credited with his first goal in 27 games on Friday night.

*** With two goals on Friday night, Craig Cunningham now leads the team with 17.

*** Ben Youds had back-to-back games with two assists on Friday and Saturday. He's third in scoring among PB's defensemen with 2-15-19 in 29 games.

*** Bobby Robins forced a turnover that led to Alex Khokhlavchev's game-winner in Worcester.

*** 9,055 fans came out to see the P-Bruins in Worcester. According to Bill Ballou of the Worcester Telegram, nine of the top 10 crowds in Sharks' history and 17 of the top 20 have come with Providence in town.

*** Alex Fallstrom is on track to return next weekend after being out since Dec. 29 with a shoulder injury.

*** Providence is 6-0-0 against Worcester.

Bad

*** Two of Providence's shortcomings - they are very young and not very big -- were too much to overcome against St. John's.

*** If you take out their 6 wins against the Sharks, the P-Bruins are 16-17 with one overtime loss and five s***tout losses against the rest of the league.

*** Matt Fraser doesn't have a point since being sent down by Boston six games ago.

*** Seth Griffith has one goal and three points in his last 12 games.

*** Knight missed the games on Saturday and Sunday with an upper-body injury.

*** Joe Morrow was a healthy scratch on Saturday after recording a minus-six in his previous five games.

*** Carter Camper, out with a toe injury, is sorely missed, especially on the power play.

*** Providence has had only 165 power plays. Only 29th-place Utica (157) has had fewer.

Ugly

*** The P-Bruins are 2-6 in their last eight and have slipped to ninth place in the Eastern Conference.

*** The P-Bruins are fifth in the AHL on the power play, but went 0-for-7 in Sunday's loss. They were 1-for-10 for the weekend."

Thanks for this, SanDog. I laughed at "Sweethands!" after reading the bad and the ugly. Fair bit of truth in the point that the P-Bruins lack size, especially up front. I wonder if PC has thought about an AHL deal to address that at some point? Maybe not now, because if he's thinking deals, he has to prioritize using prospects to acquire NHL talent, but in the off-season?

I would say PC does make some AHL deals in March, he usually does. Like you said if he includes Bartkowski, Warsofsky or Trotman in any deals he needs to replenish the cupboards. Boston's AHL have done well in recent years.

I love that schist - the smart AHL deal that shows he and his pro scouts are thinking waaay ahead, watching players who they think would be a better fit in Boston's system than where they are now, and picking them up for great value.

I still can't believe the 5th rounder they spent on McQuaid turned into Jamie Benn. If only they'd kept that pick...they could have picked Denis Ruel on pick earlier....

Would love to see Bobby have a go at Pacioretty next time B's play Montreal,who cares if Max doesn't drop his gloves.

He's a worse player than Thornton and he's already 32 years old, I doubt if he'll ever play in the NHL.

I know that,his glory days have passed,would still like to see Robins called up for one game to take on Max even though i know it won't happen.

Iwould love to see anyone smack that grin off that fawkers face! He's one of those guys I see grinning I wanna go thru the TV and choke it! He's a hellva hockey player, but that grin just makes me gringe!

Subban 8th in the AHL goalie stats. Picking up the Ws lately as well. Hasn't given up 4 goals since November. All this with some injures to some needed players. Nick Johnson, Zach Trotman out and Jared Knight remains out with a neck/shoulder injury.

Wilkes-Barre, PA – The Providence Bruins defeated the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins 4-3 in a shootout Saturday evening. Craig Cunningham, Alexander Khokhlachev and Justin Florekscored in regulation, while Cunningham, Khokhlachev and Ryan Spooner tallied in the shootout. Niklas Svedberg made 17 saves in the victory and three shots in the shootout for the P-Bruins, while Deslauriers made 20 saves in regulation and one save in the shootout for the Penguins. The P-Bruins were 1-for-2 on the power play and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill."